title: Neural activations during visual sequence learning leave a trace in post-training spontaneous EEG.
abstract: Recent EEG studies have shown that implicit learning involving specific cortical circuits results in an enduring local trace manifested as local changes in spectral power. Here we used a well characterized visual sequence learning task and high density-(hd-)EEG recording to determine whether also declarative learning leaves a post-task, local change in the resting state oscillatory activity in the areas involved in the learning process. Thus, we recorded hd-EEG in normal subjects before, during and after the acquisition of the order of a fixed spatial target sequence (VSEQ) and during the presentation of targets in random order (VRAN). We first determined the temporal evolution of spectral changes during VSEQ and compared it to VRAN. We found significant differences in the alpha and theta bands in three main scalp regions, a right occipito-parietal (ROP), an anterior-frontal (AFr), and a right frontal (RFr) area. The changes in frontal theta power during VSEQ were positively correlated with the learning rate. Further, post-learning EEG recordings during resting state revealed a significant increase in alpha power in ROP relative to a pre-learning baseline. We conclude that declarative learning is associated with alpha and theta changes in frontal and posterior regions that occur during the task, and with an increase of alpha power in the occipito-parietal region after the task. These post-task changes may represent a trace of learning and a hallmark of use-dependent plasticity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, City University of New York Medical School, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Clara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moisello
authors.forename: Hadj Boumediene
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Meziane
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: Bernardo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Perfetti
authors.forename: Svetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kvint
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Voutsinas
authors.forename: Daniella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Blanco
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Quartarone
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tononi
authors.forename: Maria Felice
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Ghilardi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000513:Alpha Rhythm; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009043:Motor Activity; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012146:Rest / Q000502:physiology; D013826:Theta Rhythm; D055815:Young Adult